1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wireless transceiver devices. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for targeting services according to location-based information derived from a wireless transceiver device.
2. Related Art
The use of wireless technologies for communication is becoming more popular. In addition to personal cordless telephones (e.g., cell phones) and pagers, computer systems (in particular, handheld or portable computer systems including personal digital assistants) are more commonly being equipped with transceivers capable of broadcasting wireless signals (e.g., radio signals) over relatively long distances. These wireless communication devices provide users with greater mobility and convenience, and hence are becoming more widely used.
Cellular network providers generally track the locations of cell phones in order to complete incoming calls. In addition, many cell phones have, or will have, the capability to identify their position to dispatchers for emergency situations in which a “911” call is made. Cell phone capabilities are being added to a number of other types of devices including personal digital assistants (PDAs), thereby allowing the position of these devices to also be determined. Other types of wireless communication devices may be equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) capability allowing their locations to be pinpointed. In any case, users of wireless communication devices can often be located to an acceptable degree of accuracy.
As a result, in addition to more conventional uses, wireless communication devices provide commercial enterprises (e.g., merchants) with opportunities to offer services directly to users (e.g., advertise). For instance, advertisers and the like may use location-based information received from a wireless communication device to establish the location of the device and to imply the location of the user. Other user information can come from other wireless data. Based on the location of the device and the other user information, an appropriate service can be identified and communicated to the user.
For example, when the user is determined to be in the vicinity of a particular merchant, a message can be sent to that user advertising that merchant. Most wireless communication devices have some sort of display capability allowing the message conveying the advertisement to be displayed to the user. PDAs and other such devices typically have even greater display capabilities relative to cell phones and the like.
Thus, in some instances, advertisers and other service providers try to target their advertisements according to the location of the individual user, in order to make the advertisement more relevant and valuable to that user. However, a problem with the prior art paradigm is that, while the advertisement may appear to be targeted to the user based on the user's location, in actuality it may not be. For example, the user may appear to be in the vicinity of a particular merchant but actually may be only passing by while riding on a train, with no opportunity to disembark from the train in order to patronize the merchant. As such, an advertisement for that merchant is of little or no interest to the user. Not only is the advertisement itself wasted, but the opportunity to provide a more relevant advertisement is also lost.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and/or method that can more effectively target advertisements and other services to users of wireless communication devices. The present invention provides this advantage and others not specifically mentioned above but described in the sections to follow.